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161 " Is a mountain a very large rock? Is a planet a huge mountain? These terms can be used, but the new scale of magnitude brings with it new regularities and new phenomena. "
― Stanisław Lem , Solaris
162 " A human being is capable of taking in very few things at one time; we see only what is happening in front of us, here and now. Visualizing a simultaneous multiplicity of processes, however they may be interconnected, however they may complement one another, is beyond us. We experience this even with relatively simple phenomena. The fate of a single person can mean many things, the fate of several hundred is hard to encompass; but the history of thousands, millions, means essentially nothing at all. "
163 " As more and more norms disappear from social praxis, literature faces ever-growing difficulties. Its predicament is beginning to resemble that of a child who has discovered that his incredibly understanding parents will let him break with impunity all his toys, indeed everything in the house. The artist cannot create specific prohibitions for himself in order to attack them later in his work; the prohibitions must be real, and hence independent of the writer's choices. And since the relativization of cultural norms has not so far been able to disturb the given characteristics of human biology, that is where writers today seek the still perceptible points of resistance--which is why literature is preoccupied with the theme of sex. "
― Stanisław Lem , Microworlds: Writings on Science Fiction and Fantasy
164 " It’s what we wanted: contact with another civilization. We have it, this contact! Our own monstrous ugliness, our own buffoonery and shame, magnified as if it was under a microscope! "
165 " We have named all the stars and all the planet, even though they might already have had names of their own. What a nerve! "
166 " Man does not create gods, in spite of appearances. The times, the age, impose them on him. (tr. by Joanna Kilmartin and Steve Cox) "
167 " cripple God, who always desires more than he’s able to have, and doesn’t always realize this to begin with. Who has built clocks, but not the time that they measure. Has built systems or mechanisms that serve particular purposes, but they too have outgrown these purposes and betrayed them. And has created an infinity that, from being the measure of the power he was supposed to have, turned into the measure of his boundless failure. "
168 " Ants that encounter in their path a dead philosopher may make good use of him. "
― Stanisław Lem , His Master's Voice
169 " Such labor follows in the steps of Freud, who has become the Ptolemy of psychology, for now, with him, anyone can explain human phenomena, raising epicycles upon epicycles... "
― Stanisław Lem
170 " We don’t need other worlds. We need mirrors. We don’t know what to do with other worlds. One world is enough, even there we feel stifled. We desire to find our own idealized image; they’re supposed to be globes, civilizations more perfect than ours; in other worlds we expect to find the image of our own primitive past. "
171 " every part contained a memory of the other parts it was directly attached to. "
― Stanisław Lem , The Invincible
172 " We came here as we truly are, and when the other side shows us that truth—the part of it we pass over in silence—we’re unable to come to terms with it! "
173 " We head out into space, ready for anything, which is to say, for solitude, arduous work, self-sacrifice, and death. Out of modesty we don’t say it aloud, but from time to time we think about how magnificent we are. In the meantime—in the meantime, we’re not trying to conquer the universe; all we want is to expand Earth to its limits. "
174 " But how can I use a method to discredit that very method, if the method is discreditable? "
― Stanisław Lem , The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy
175 " It has been said that a specialist is a barbarian whose ignorance is not well-rounded "
176 " Giese was an unemotional man, but then in the study of Solaris emotion is a hindrance to the explorer. Imagination and premature theorizing are positive disadvantages in approaching a planet where—as has become clear—anything is possible... The fact is that in spite of his cautious nature the scrupulous Giese more than once jumped to premature conclusions. Even when on their guard, human beings inevitably theorize. "
177 " The chances that lose in the lottery of being are invisible "
― Stanisław Lem , A Perfect Vacuum
178 " And he has created eternity, which was to have measured his power, and which measures his unending defeat. "
179 " Но у меня нет дома. Земля? Я думаю о ее больших, набитых людьми городах, в которых потеряюсь, исчезну почти так же, как если бы совершил то, что хотел сделать на вторую или третью ночь, - броситься в океан, тяжело волнующийся внизу. Я утону в людях. "
180 " The Universe is picking us off one by one. Yesterday part of the poop deck went, and with it all the toilets. "
― Stanisław Lem , The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy
